Describing Species: Practical Taxonomic Procedure for Biologists

  • Judith E. Winston
Columbia University Press: 2000. 518 pp.£11, $35 (pbk)
A bug's world: Cornelia Hesse-Honegger's painting Leaf Bug ( Miridae, Cremnocephalus). Credit: LOCUS+

The discipline of taxonomy traditionally covers three areas: alpha, beta and gamma taxonomy. These areas respectively cover the recognition and description of species; the arrangement of species in classifications, which today aim to reflect phylogenetic affinity; and infraspecific categories such as subspecies, ecotypes and polymorphisms. There is currently considerable interest in beta taxonomy, particularly in using novel molecular data, and molecular techniques have also revived interest in problems concerned with gamma taxonomy. The bedrock discipline of alpha taxonomy, however, continues its relentless decline. Today, most specialists are retired professionals or amateurs, with the result that other biologists, such as ecologists, must frequently describe the novel species they encounter themselves.

With current estimates suggesting that around 90 per cent of the world's species remain undescribed, this situation will not soon change. Indeed, it reflects my own experience. Although primarily an ecologist/naturalist, even when working on well-studied insect groups as a medical entomologist, I was forced into describing new species. Now alpha taxonomy is my principal tool for investigating the natural histories of scuttle flies (Phoridae). Only about 25 per cent of my publications are straight ecology, whereas 19 per cent are ecology plus alpha taxonomy and 45 per cent are alpha taxonomy alone. Thus, my largest contribution has been in alpha taxonomy, even though I have not been trained in this discipline and consider it only a means to an end.

A welcome arrival on this scene, Judith Winston's book is primarily concerned with alpha taxonomy. It is arranged in three parts — how to recognize that a specimen belongs to an undescribed species; how to prepare a description of the new species (including the choice of a name that conforms with the provisions of the relevant code of nomenclature); and how to deal with other problems, such as beta and gamma taxonomy, key construction and missing types.

The book is probably the most exhaustive treatment available of the practical aspects of describing new species or higher taxa. It enables the novice, such as an ecologist who finds that a species of interest is new to science, to prepare for publication an acceptable description of a hitherto undescribed taxon. If I had had Judith Winston's book at the beginning of my career, I would not have fallen into so many of those holes — be they nomenclatural or scientific — that seem to litter the path of the would-be alpha taxonomist.